Some invasive surgery needed to fix wounded Arsenal

So we lost the game to Barcelona. The aggregate scoreline of 4-3 suggests a close battle over two legs, but Arsenal did all the hard work in one game only – last night they just showed up to watch Barcelona pass the ball around.

Forget about the abysmal refereeing decision that led to Van Persie being sent off. That’s going to keep happening until FIFA realise that referees are not the reason people pay money to watch football; until FIFA start sanctioning referees for obvious bad decisions.

Let’s talk about the abysmal Arsenal performance on the night. The only players who were prepared to put in some work were Nasri, Van Persie, Wilshere, Almunia and perhaps Koscielny, Clichy and Djourou did enough. Diaby’s performance was atrocious and Rosicky continued his downward spiral towards has-been-dom.

But the worst player on the night, was conspicuous by his desire to please…the Barcelona fans. I have never seen Fabregas this disinterested in making an effort for his team before. In keeping with all the rumours of his intentions to move back to Spain, it was mentioned by a friend that he could be deemed to have started playing his first match for Barcelona last night.

The other player to have disgusted me the most last night was Bendtner. Seems that his lazy-arse approach creeped in again. Having the chance to win the game by scoring what would have been hailed as a wonder-goal, he couldn’t find that extra five percent to stick his leg out and tip the ball goalwards. What a loser! Strikers have that killer instinct in the goal area – Bendtner has just the lazy itch.

We really missed Song in the midfield and the pace of Walcott on the wing. Why are Arsenal’s most inspiring players always injured for the most crucial games.

Its time for Wenger to perform some drastic surgery. It’s time to cut the lazy players loose. I think we all know who they are.

Well then Mr. Wenger, so far so good, but not quite there yet

Dear Mr. Wenger,

I’m hoping to make this my last rant about your team selections. I’ve noticed the dramatic improvement in Bendtner. Seems all he needed was a firm kick up his Danish butt.

I’ve also noticed the remarkable improvement in Arshavin. His radar seems to have come on-line again; but perhaps some fine-tuning won’t hurt. I think you need to have a look at his boots though; maybe it’s affecting his shooting.

But I’m still pulling my hair out over Denilson. The guy is absolute shite. He’s getting worse by the game. His mind is definitely not on what’s happening on the field; and he spends far too much time falling over and sitting on his arse. Maybe he needs some time off at Ipanema Beach [sitting on his arse] to get his head sorted out; or maybe a permanent holiday at some other club.

And while we’re noticing shortcomings, what about Chamakh? I’ve noticed that he craves to be inconspicuous on the field. He rarely gets involved in the action. What’s with that? Seems some of that laziness from Bendtner seems to have rubbed off on him too. Please get him sorted out very quickly; he’s certainly talented, but he still needs to put in the hard graft like everybody else.

Okay, I’m done.

In you we will always trust,

Sincerely,

Lenny

Ok Mr. Wenger, so you dared…

Dear Mr. Wenger,

They say “who dares, wins.” So you played Bendtner anyway…and won.

I’m not going to take any credit for instilling some urgency in that lazy Dane; that was your doing. How you did it? Who cares! He played more football in that one game last night against Ipswich, than in all the games he’s played since the beginning of the season.

Let’s hope his arse stays in gear, and he performs like this for the rest of the season.

But now, I need to question your judgement with regard to the bumbling Brazilian and the radarless Russian. Denilson’s tackling is woeful, and he seems to have forgotten what his teammates look like because he has made a habit of passing the ball to the opposition. As for Arshavin; his passing is way off the mark, and I think some of that Bendtner laziness has rubbed off on him.

Can you do something about these two? How about docking them some of their pay for every boob during a game? And I’m not referring to the female supporters.

As always, in you we trust.

Lenny

Please Mr. Wenger, don’t you dare…

Dear Mr. Wenger,

I know you’ve been telling us repeatedly that you can’t play the same team all the time. And yes, that’s true; we understand that players need to rest and recuperate and thus you need to rotate them.

But please don’t for the love of the beautiful game, ever start with that lazy-ass Dane Bendtner, ever again.

I know you’ve been telling us repeatedly that your players are starting to have great belief in themselves and their ability to win games. And yes, that’s true. However, Bendtner has great belief that the ball will magically come to him as he strolls lazily around the park.

Please Mr. Wenger, if he doesn’t start making an effort to get to the ball, get rid of that loser as quick as you can. But in the interim, he should be given time off to get into shape; he does not belong on the same field of play as the others.

In you we will trust.

Lenny

Have the Arsenal signed on a few spectators?

It’s becoming all too much to bear.  Another dreadful night of football with the Arsenal not being able to get past Wigan; which they should have done quite comfortably.

Wenger has no excuses this time – he can’t blame the pitch, or the two atrocious refereeing decisions. Arsenal should have won despite this. But they didn’t . And perhaps Wenger needs to admit for once that he screwed up.

His starting lineup showed a great deal of arrogance and disrespect for Wigan. He is not going to win games against the so-called minnows if he insists on picking players who would be visibly more comfortable sitting in the stands watching the game. Even though Arshavin and Bendtner both scored, they were mere spectators for large parts of the game.

The Arsenal are in desperate need of players who are prepared to put in some work; not just wait for the ball to roll up to their feet. Bendtner, Arshavin, Denilson and Chamakh to a certain extent are just far too lazy, and don’t make the extra efforts required to get to the ball in cases where the passes are not 100% accurate.

It’s time Wenger looked at offloading these spectators and employing some honest hard-working no-nonsense footballers, even if they’re supposedly not as talented as this lot. And boy does that defense need some attention. Make-shift is hardly the word to describe the disaster-in-waiting that passes for a defense.

If Wenger thinks he’s going to win any trophies this year with these low levels of commitment on regular display, then he must be the most optimistic professor of football, ever.